


Memory Failure

by DragonAesthetic



Series: The Man Under the Hood AU [1]
Category: LEGO Nexo Knights
Genre: Alternate Universe, And explain how he actually works in this AU, But hey I wrote something so it's worth it, Canonical Character Death, Human Monstrox, I am so sleep deprived right now thanks to this, I wrote 99 percent of this at 11 PM while half asleep, I'm back with this one get ready folks, In which I actually describe Monstrox's human form in slightly more detail, Stay tooned for when I actually describe something original about him, eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 16:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11421657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonAesthetic/pseuds/DragonAesthetic
Summary: Clay was at a lost for words. He didn't know how to describe what just happened to him.Or to them.Now battered and bruised, he had to remember what happened to him, Merlok, and Jestro that lead to the destruction of Merlok's library.





	Memory Failure

“ _I_ _t all just happened so quickly, I don't know where to start.”_ Clay breathed out. His head was throbbing, his whole body ached, and blood slowly dripped out of a shallow cut in his arm. He may not have known what happened, but he was glad he was alive.

“Calm down Clay,” Macy tried to reassure him. She turned to look at the entrance to Merlok’s library, well, his former library. It made her stomach turn. How could this have happened? Less than an hour ago she and her friends had graduated, now they were looking over what could only be described as a crime scene. She took in a deep breath and turned back to Clay. “Try and relax, we’ll take care this. You’ve clearly been through a lot.” She patted Clay on the shoulder and gave him a fake smile for reassurance.

Clay smiled back, “Thanks, Macy,” But it quickly faded when he turned back to the library. “But I don't think I can rest after this.” Clay forced himself off the ground, stumbling slightly as he tried to stand straight. He must have hurt his leg as well.

Macy followed behind and placed her hand back on Clays shoulder. “You sure? Really, we can-”

“It's fine Macy, really.” Clay interrupted. “I appreciate it a lot, but I was the one that saw it all.” He looked over the burnt remains of the library. All that remained was countless shelves of burnt books and Merlok’s desk. An entire wall has been broken down, leaving the tower exposed to the open.

Clay suddenly felt a stinging pain in his head. He hissed and placed his head in his hands. Before Macy was able to voice her concerns, he managed to speak again. “It was Jestro,” His voice cracked as he said his old friend's name.

Aaron, Lance, and Axl turned away from their investigation of the scene to look at Clay in shock. He had to be kidding, right? Sure, Jestro messed up, a lot, but he would never hurt anyone… Right?

“I don't know, _why_ , but, but it was him.”

Macy bit her lip and tightened her grip on Clay's shoulder. “Clay are you sur-”

“Yes! I couldn't make this up. Merlok tried to stop him, he told him it was some kind of dangerous magic that shouldn't be messed with. And then,” Clay shook his head and looked down at the floor. He was too far ahead he needed to go back to the beginning. “I mean, when I went to look for him, it felt like, like something was drawing me to the library. By the time I was outside the door I could hear growling, everything felt hot too.”

Lance pointed up at the ceiling. “Was that the library?”

“Like it was caught on fire?” Aaron asked.

Clay shook his head, “No, no it was,” He looked back up at the others, who had moved closer to him now. “Monsters. Two of them. They were huge, one looked like the one Merlok had us fight earlier in the arena. The other was some kind of stone cyclops. They attacked me as soon as I entered.”

“So that's how you got all banged up?”

Clay weakly nodded and looked back down at the ground. He felt sick. This was too much, even for him. He had wanted an adventure of a lifetime for years, but this isn't what he expected. He didn't expect his friend to send two giant to kill him. Or what Merlok did.

“So were they taller than Axl?” Lance abruptly asked.

“ _Lance!_ ” Macy hissed.

“Well excuse me for trying to lighten up the mood a little bit princess! Moorington looks like he's about to throw up for God's sake!”

“I mean, he's not wrong,” Aaron said with a shrug. “He does look sick.”

“We should just get you to a doctor for now. You're hurt and you can’t say what happened straight. We can talk about this later.” Macy interjected.

“It's fine, I'm fine, really. And, yeah, they were definitely taller than Axl, they could have probably reached the chandelier if they had jumped.”

“Was wondering what that was,” Axl said before pointing at the large pile of shattered wood.

Clay lets out a weak laugh. “I held them off the best I could.” Clay fell silent again as he thought of what happened next. “But Merlok showed up, “

He suddenly didn't want to continue again. Merlok had been important to him for years. He practically considered the wizard to be like a father figure to him. He was too kind of a man to deserve what happened to him. “He held off the monsters, and then,” Clay shivered at the thought of just those unnatural eyes. “Merlok tried to warn Jestro not to summon any more monsters. But, he didn’t listen.” Clay felt sick again, remembering the look of pain in Merlok's eyes as he tried to get Jestro to put down the book.

“Couldn't take that he was losing maybe? Last ditch effort to win by making it even more unfair?” Lance suggested. “I knew Jestro always seemed like a sore loser but sheesh- Ow!” Lance shouted in pain when Axl elbowed him in the ribs. He received a harsh shush from Axl before turning back to Clay.

“This one was different though,” Clay clenched his hands over the memories. “He felt, worse. When he appeared the whole room suddenly went cold, like,” Clay shivered again, suddenly he felt paranoid about him still being there. He looked over the shoulder of his fellow knights. Who in turn looked behind themselves.

“It felt like death.” Clay managed out. “I don't know what he was, he wore a cloak with a hood. All I could see was,” Clay fell silent again. The image of the man's glowing eyes and the crooked smile would probably haunt him for years to come. Despite looking closer to a human, he felt more unnatural than the other two monsters by a long shot. “These, _huge_ glowing orange eyes. And his smile... it didn't look normal. His mouth looked, jagged, and all his teeth looked sharp.” Clay wanted to mention the large black scar that went down his chest too. But remembering it dripping some kind of thick, black liquid and hearing the drops echo in the silent room again made him want to gag even more than before. “Merlok sacrificed himself to keep everyone safe. Whatever that thing was, it must have been dangerous.”

“So, Merlok's…”

“Gone.” Clay finished. He noticed something laying on the ground behind Aaron. He walked over and picked up the smoldering, wizard hat that one belonged to Merlok.

Silence fell over the five knights for several minutes until Clay finally regained his courage to speak. “We can't let this be in vain.” He turned back to his teammates with new determination. “Merlok died to protect us, now we have to repay the favor.”

A genuine smile crossed Macy's face. “Right!” She cheered eagerly. “We're knights after all! We have to protect the realm!”

“Yeah!” Aaron shouted as he pumped his fist in the air. “Let's kick some monster ass then!”

Axl unsheathed his axe and firmly banged the end of it against the ground. “Sounds good to me.”

The four turned and looked at Lance. Who in turn raised his eyebrow at them. “What? You think I have the choice to leave?” He pulled out his lance. “Let's get moving, the quicker we get this done the better.”

Clay smiled at his teammates and nodded his head affirmatively. “Alright,” He still felt the pain of when he hit his head against the tile floor of the castle. Before Merlok shut the door behind him to keep him safe. It strung, but he’d bare it. It was his reminder that he had a mission now.

The loud chime of the center cities bell tower rug through the air. It had been exactly one hour since they'd graduated. One hour and they already had their first mission. Clay's smile grew bigger as he looked at the bell tower. This isn't what he'd expected to happen at all, but now he was actually excited. His blood was pumping, there was nothing that was going to stop him from finding Jestro and the hooded man now. He unsheathed his claymore and rested it against his shoulder. “Let's get going then.”


End file.
